Some of my younger readers may not be familiar with this age-old euphemism often used as a gentle reminder to young, single women to keep their legs firmly closed before marriage. It’s probably not bandied about quite so much in this day and age as it was in the 50’s (not that I was around in the 50’s!!)

It’s the same with social media. So many people feel that they can get all the information they need to put together a successful social media campaign without going to the added expense of hiring a social media strategist to help them navigate through the process.

In some cases this might actually be true. For example, if you’re a very small business owner (1 employee…you) and you have a lot of time on your hands and you believe that you can put in the effort to grow your business as well as learn all the components of a great campaign, then maybe you don’t need someone to help you out.

That said, I’ve been in this business for a while and I learn something new every, single day. I wake up in the morning hoping to find some new tip or trick or strategy that will make me better at my job and that will add value to the services I provide for my clients. I spend a good part of my day plugged into the social media web of information. It’s my job.

I am focused on social media. I live it, I breath it and, much to my children’s chagrin, I am almost always connected in one way or another to some form of it.

There are sites all over the internet that will show you how to set up a campaign. They’ll give you the steps and the technical requirements of facebook, twitter, linked in etc. What they cannot give you is the personal customization that comes from hiring a pro.

So while you can download a step-by-step guide to developing a social media campaign for your company you will find it much more difficult to find an ebook on how to customize a strategy for YOUR COMPANY.

I’ll tell you what though. As an act of good faith and value I will give you some really important tips on where to begin. Ready?

1. know your market/audience. I can’t iterate this enough. If you don’t know who to talk to and how to talk to them, you’ll fail. i.e. If you’re a skateboard company you’ll have an entirely different language to connect with your customers than if you are selling life insurance.

Demographics, geographical location, where they hang out (Facebook?), spending habits etc. There are many more parameters but this is a good place to start.

2. make sure you’re company name is branded across all social media sites. If your company is called ABC Company you want to make sure that when people search ABC Company you come up and not some kid, on a computer in Alaska.

3. Give away information. Yep, I said “give”. Information is value so the more of it you can give away the more engagement you’ll have from your audience.

4. Get everyone in your organization onboard. From the CEO to the mailroom, everyone should be promoting the brand online.

5. Make sure you have policies and procedures in place to govern how your company and it’s employees engage online. SUPER IMPORTANT! It costs a lot of money to replace an employee. Make sure they know what your social media expectations are from the get go. Or you may end up as one of these companies.

I think that’s enough for today. After all, you’re getting a lot of milk here and the cow is still standing out in the field. (too far with the analogy? 🙂

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This client needed a site that integrated with online travel agents and merged calendars for guest bookings. While the design is simple and elegant, the backend is very robust. I added an additional solution to give hotel staff on the ground the ability to take bookings over the phone or in person without sacrificing the calendar sync.

This site was created to compliment North and West Vancouver Realtor, Elizabeth Dyer's, growing real estate business. Liz felt that providing people with real experiences from the North Shore would help them get a true feel for what it's like to live in this amazing place. The site is growing daily with new posts and new tech like vlog posts!

I created this site for my daughter Layne who is just about to graduate high school. We worked on it together as a tool to help her realize her dream of becoming an Interior Designer. The site is used for post-secondary admissions and scholarship opportunities. It also showcases many of Layne's extra curricular activities.

Jacquie McCarnan is the National Director of Social Media and Online Outreach for the Women In Leadership Foundation. She is also "keeper of the brand". With chapters in 4 Canadian cities, the WIL online presence is an extremely intricate part of the Foundation's overall community outreach.
We conceived and built individual sites for each chapter, trained each chapter rep and provide continued support through the national head office site.
By giving the chapters some autonomy to construct their own content we have seen a considerable increase in online engagement; not only from the website(s) but from all social media outlets as well.
We also initiated, planned and constructed processes to make the social media engagement a turn-key solution for each chapter since all chapter members are volunteers.
In less than a year WIL has become the most robust online presence of all Canadian women-centric non-profits. (big round of applause :)

“I started Social Media Canada in 2008 to help others realize the power of Social Media to affect change. Since then so much has changed. Social Media is now used to inform, to condemn, to inspire, to do just about anything. There's a lot to know and I'm here to help you learn!”